Archaeologists from Mexico came across remnants of an ancient Aztec palace and the ruins of what's reportedly the home of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, built later on its site, during excavation works in Mexico City, the country’s Ministry of Culture revealed on Twitter.
“Remains of the Palace of Axayácatl and a house built by order of Cortés have been discovered in Monte de Piedad”, the ministry announced in Spanish.
The discovery was made under the floors of the capital’s 18th-century Nacional Monte de Piedad building, now a non-profit institution and a pawnshop, located next to the Metropolitan Cathedral.
A team from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) came across “basalt slab floors” during the excavation works, that have been going on for several years, to conclude that the ruins could have “formed part of an open space in the Axayácatl Palace”, something resembling a patio.
Axayácatl ruled Tenochtitlan between 1469 and 1481, and was a father to Montezuma, who was killed during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés in the start of the 16th century.
It is the Cortés expedition’s colonisation efforts, coupled with the introduction of European diseases such as Smallpox, that are believed to have eventually led to the fall of the Aztec Empire.